Captain for Life: And Other Temporary Assignments

by John Harkes, Denise Kiernan

One of the most accomplished players in the history of American soccer traces his career from his early years in Kearny, N.J., to his career in the English Premier League and with the U.S. national team

Genres: Sports

228 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Denise Kiernan is an author, journalist and producer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, Saveur, Discover, Ms., Reader's Digest, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Conde Nast Sports for Women and others. In addition to her books for adults and children, she was head writer for ABC's "Who Wants to be Millionaire" during its Emmy award-winning first season and has produced for ESPN, MSNBC and others. She lives in North Carolina."

Reviews

[Ian Daley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to rate. If you are a fan of Sheffield Wednesday or the MLS you will enjoy it, if you are not you won't and if you are a Derby fan you will hate it as he has nothing good to say about them.

[Ernie Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Captain for Life by John Harkes is a memoir about Harkes’ soccer life in general and his time spent with the United States Men’s National Team in particular. It is a soccer book for soccer people and will likely not appeal to many others. If I can mix my sports metaphors, this book is inside baseball for soccer fans. All of that being said, I enjoyed the book, even if the author comes across as a bit entitled and self-centered, especially when discussing the events and reasons that led to coach Steve Sampson’s massively controversial decision to leave Harkes off the roster for the 1998 World Cup. Even the book’s subtitle “and other temporary assignments” is an inside joke of an insult aimed at Sampson that grew out of that time. Anyone who spent the 1990’s evenly partly clued in to the Men’s National Team will find something to like here. Probably something to be mad about as well, but that’s part of the fun of sports isn’t it?

[Andy Landis · Rating 3 out of 5]

More than a description of the dark times during the disasterous 1998 World Cup of the US Men's national soccer time under Steve Sampson (3-6-1 ??!?!). Harkes discusses his historic career in England and the US.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting point of view from a former player on the US National Team. It is worth a read if you ever wanted to find out a player's opinion on what happened with former Coach Steve Sampson, and follow John Harkes career from NJ to England and back...

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I named my son after this guy, so I was obligated to buy the book when it came out.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about my soccer coach.